Integrated Service-Learning: Students Perspectives

Service-Learning (S-L) has been integrated throughout a College of Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, a mid-size state university, for eight years. The S-L program has been supported by three grants from the National Science Foundation. In this effort, the S-L projects are hands-on experiences in core courses of every engineering department, aimed at responding to community needs. The community partners can be local, national or international. Most of the S-L projects require the students to assess the engineering components of community needs, to design solutions to those needs, and eventually to produce a deliverable. The learning mechanisms are left to the discretion of the instructor. Since the implementation of the S-L program, the students have been surveyed annually regarding both their conception of S-L and the impact of S-L on their learning. We are reporting here on the results of the students survey for the 2011-2012 academic year. The latest student survey includes the response of 873 participants, amongst which 105 are female (12%) and 85 come from other underrepresented groups (10%). Amongst those surveyed in the spring of 2012, 33% were working at least 11 hours a week at a paid job and 50% of them were taking between 15 and 17 credits of courses a semester. For those eligible to vote, 62% of them did not vote in a recent public election. A majority of them (53%) report having participated in one to three S-L projects, 30% report more than three, and 17% report none. The participants considered security as the most important career value, and income as the least important value (similar to what has been observed in previous years). The students are on average in agreement with the principles of the S-L implementation and activities. In particular, they are strongly positive towards the benefits of hands-on experience (7.7 on a 9 point Likert scale). Students are divided, however, on the mandatory nature of the S-L implementation, as their mean score is 5.15 (not significantly different from neutral (i.e. 5) at a 5% risk level) on a Likert scale. Regarding the impact of S-L on their learning, the mean answers of the students were positive (at the 5% statistical level); in particular the students valued the team work experience that S-L provides, and agree that service should be an expected part of the engineering profession. The final analysis focuses on the quality of the learning mechanisms as expressed by the students. We build the analysis on the students’ optional comments, classifying them as positive, neutral or negative. We relate the comments’ tone to learning mechanisms, e.g. in-class discussions, presentations, journal writing, report writing, and other type of writing. Students engaged in no formal assessment exercises report no positive comments. The exercises which lead to more positive comments are first report writing, followed by discussions and presentations. It appears that engaging students in communication exercises help students to reflect on their experience. Those findings underline the importance of formal reflection modules in S-L practice. P ge 23767.2